I don't think anyone is worrying about a depression based on the _current_ unemployment number. The concern is that things are going to get much worse because of frozen credit markets, nationalized banks, globalized finance, trade deficits, a worldwide demand slump, a weirdly-behaving dollar, and, most importantly, the fact that interest rates are at zero so we don't have any normal macroeconomic tools left.
If you were a recent graduate looking for work at that time, you might view those figures a little differently. We're also on the downward (rather than recovering) side of that particular data slope, with worse to come.
Looking at the tech-sector alone, those in most (all?) industrialized nations have slid from a world of "Yay! We can live on page views and happy thoughts!" to "How can I scrape together enough to either eat or pay rent?" in just a few months.
That many economies have suddenly seized up in a halt is not a typical thing. As historical data goes, the current situation is remarkably bad.
I thought this was some great data to calm nerves about the "Next Great Depression" many people speculate we are entering. Funding may have temporarily dried up, but as long as things don't crater we are actually doing ok at least vis-a-vis unemployment.
BTW headline came from Virginia Postrel's Dynamist blog:
